10 May 2007

Egyptian, German and US archaeological experts have rejected the theory of the French archaeologist Jean-Pierre Houdin about how the Giza Pyramids were built, Zahi Hawass, the Secretary-General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said yesterday.

According to Houdin, the Ancient Egyptians built the 480-foot-high Great Pyramid of Giza from the inside out, using a ramp that spiralled around the pyramid's interior, 30 to 45 feet inside its external surface.

Hawass tested the theory on the ground in the area of the Pyramids, along with a number of eminent archaeologists including the American Mark Lehner and the German Rainer Stadelman. They concluded that the Frenchman's theory was scientifically impossible.